In an attempt to find comfort after his wife's latest infidelity, the journalist Carston Fielding returns from England to Manzanilla - his idealised West Indian island on which he was born and spent his childhood. Instead of the tropical paradise he remembers, he finds hordes of tourists, a violent, drug-fuelled culture and a profoundly discontented people. Hopelessly disillusioned, he prepares to return to England. Then he recalls Angelina, the little isolated neighbouring island which he had once heard of but never ...
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In an attempt to find comfort after his wife's latest infidelity, the journalist Carston Fielding returns from England to Manzanilla - his idealised West Indian island on which he was born and spent his childhood. Instead of the tropical paradise he remembers, he finds hordes of tourists, a violent, drug-fuelled culture and a profoundly discontented people. Hopelessly disillusioned, he prepares to return to England. Then he recalls Angelina, the little isolated neighbouring island which he had once heard of but never visited. Hoping to discover at least an echo of the West Indies he remembers, he delays his return and takes passage on a trading schooner, intending to stay for no more than two or three days. Angelina is an island out of time. There are no hotels, no tourists. Happy in their own traditional way of life, the people of the beautiful island have managed to escape the 'development' all around them. Carston soon learns all that is about to change. An American company plans to build a hotel complex on the island, ignoring the wishes of the people. Preoccupied with his own misery, and against his will, Carston finds himself drawn into the islanders' struggle to remain as they are...Michael Humfrey's thorough understanding of West Indian culture enriches this unusual story.
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